Season 5 Coming in October

The SOTRU team is traveling far and wide to bring you four incredible new episodes of SOTRU. Here’s a preview of what’s coming your way in October:

93-year-old World War II veteran and transgender woman Robina Asti, holding a photograph of her deceased husband.

Trans Families

When you pass someone on the street, what’s the first—maybe even subconscious—thing you notice about them? Usually it’s whether they’re a man or a woman. Gender is foundational to our understanding of one another. In recent years, though, more and more people are publicly declaring that they feel themselves to be a different gender than the one assigned to them at birth. It’s estimated that there are more than a million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as transgender. That’s more than a million people with families, communities and stories we are only just starting to hear, as transgender Americans come out in greater numbers than they ever have before. In this hour of radio, SOTRU will tell stories of trans people and their families at many different moments of life, from childhood to adulthood to elders, as parents, as spouses and as kids, themselves.

Outside the Pascua Yaqui Justice Complex, the flag of the Pascua Yaqui Nation flies next to the Arizona and American flags.

American Justice

The United States has the biggest criminal justice system in the world. If you added up all the people in America currently in prison, on probation, or on parole, it’d total about six million: smaller than the population of New York City, but way bigger than Los Angeles. The system is vast, but how well is it working? In this episode of State of the Re:Union, we’ll chronicle how a few communities across the country have responded creatively to problems with police, courts, and prisons. From a group of families in Albuquerque raising questions about the police department’s use of lethal force, to an historic case on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation in southern Arizona, to a program in San Quentin State Prison rethinking the meaning of offender rehabilitation and accountability, SOTRU explores American justice.

Sailors return to their ship M/V Geraldine Manx after a few hours shore leave in Port Everglades, Florida.

Truckers of the High Seas

In our globalized world, it only takes a click to buy something from China and have it delivered right to your doorstep. But that product sailed across the ocean on a cargo ship before it got to you. Over 90 percent of global trade travels across the ocean by ship. In this episode, we’ll step on board some of these ships and meet the sailors who work there. What’s it like to live for months at sea, isolated with only your co-workers? And when a ship stops in the USA, how do sailors spend the few precious hours they have on shore? Tune in to this hour with SOTRU to find out.

Travelogue: Volume One

The SOTRU team brings you a collection of stories from the road. Host Al Letson and the producers reflect on the show and play some of their favorite stories mixed with unheard interviews. We’ll also hear a story about a road trip that completely shifted Al’s life.